Fox Cancels ‘Lone Star,’ ABC Cancels ‘My Generation’

Published 4 years ago
by
Rob Frappier
, Updated February 15th, 2014 at 4:30 pm,

We’re a couple of weeks into the fall television season and studios have already brought out the axe. Last week, Fox spilled first blood by canceling the critically-acclaimed drama Lone Star. On Friday, ABC followed suit by canceling the faux-documentary drama My Generation.

Lone Star was canceled by Fox after only two aired episodes, ceasing production after only five. The series, which followed a con man leading a double life, was popular among TV reviewers for its engaging plot and character-driven story. From its inception however, many critics predicted that show might be better off on a cable network like FX. Those predictions turned out to be true. In its initial episodes, Lone Star received very poor ratings, leading Fox to consider dropping the show after its pilot episode.

Conversely, ABC’s My Generation wasn’t popular with critics or viewers.Despite considerable marketing support for the show,which used a documentary style to tell the story of several high school classmates 10 years after their graduation, never caught on with audiences. After a less-than-stellar response to its pilot episode, viewership sank 31% for the second episode, earning a pitiful 1.1 rating among the key 18-49 age demographic. Like Lone Star, the show got the boot after only its second episode. My Generation completed shooting on eight total episodes but it is unclear whether ABC will broadcast those episodes in another format.

According to a Fox press release, the network will replace Lone Star with new episodes from the third season of Lie to Me, the network’s popular police procedural starring Tim Roth. According to Variety, ABC has not yet determined what will replace My Generation in the 8:00 PM time slot, which leads into the popular medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. Variety wisely points out that there is no reality TV show on any network during that time slot, so don’t be surprised if ABC moves a reality program into the open spot.

As the fall TV season progresses, several more shows will undoubtedly find their heads on the proverbial chopping block. We will keep our eyes on all of the off-screen drama as it develops. In the meantime, check out our preview of the fall season and make your best bet as to what shows will make it and what shows won’t.

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Jonathan Sullivan 4 years ago

I’m not surprised about My Generation; the pilot was wonky at best and flat out unrealistic at worst, but I still wanted to give it a chance. Even though it’s canceled, I’ll probably check out the other episodes if/when they are released.

As for Lone Star…from what I’ve heard people either didn’t care about it or found the premise dumb. In fact, I was in the “dumb premise” camp until I watched the first (and last apparently) two episodes. It was well-written and had some great acting, although rooting for a con man who’s conning two families at once can be hard to do. Maybe cable will pick it up? Seems like a better fit than My Generation would be.

regarding My Generation, I completely disagree, the show was done diffrently, the show had real potention, great life stories and I was hooked only after two episodes! What was even better then the plot was the style in which it was shot, as though its a real documentary, I find myself wanting to know what happened to the characters over the last 10 years. I think they should find another time slot (if the 8pm is too prized for the the show) and definitely air it!!

I personally loved Lone Star and found myself setting my DVR so I didn’t miss an episode!! I was VERY disappointed when Lie to Me was on instead of Lone Star because I really like the show. It was different than the other shows and pertrayed a completely different story line. We all know that in reality life there is someone out there who is “trying” to pull something like this off. I really hope that cable will pick this up….I will definitely be watching it there as well!!!!

I missed the pilot of My Generation but I caught the second episode and loved it. I scheduled the TiVo to catch a repeat of the pilot and the third episode. My wife and I had viewed the pilot of Lone Star which was delivered over the TiVo. We both enjoyed it and thought it might be going somewhere. We watched the second Lone Star episode tonight and afterwards I went to check on the upcoming episodes… to my surprise there were none. Then I checked on the upcoming episodes of My Generation and the ones I had scheduled were missing as well. Then I went back to find out why Human Target did not record on Friday night and it had been pulled from the schedule too. Is TiVo too subtle for network execs to understand. We have two so we can record 4 shows at any time and watch them when we wish. That’s two new shows (which I thought were well-written and reasonably intelligent) and one which was pure entertainment (Human Target), apparently all victims of anxious execs. How can anything but CSI and Law and Order sustain itself, and how many of them can anyone watch in a week?

Arrrrrgh. Please don’t cancel programming because I watch it when I want. I promise I will watch all the new commercials at least once.

I’m ticked that Human Target was just pulled. They must have pulled it at the last second, because my DVR (through Time Warner) still recorded that time slot and had the episode information. I really liked that show, da basterds!!

Thanks for the update, ace. I don’t read much, I just know what my TiVo shows me. HT was scheduled and then disappeared.

To add a personal note, I believe that we’re seeing the death of television as we know it. I read that 38% of homes now have some form of DVR. If we took 38% of the Lone Star viewership (3.2MN) and sold the series on iTunes, Hulu, Amazon, NetFlix or all of the above, the revenues – in a fair and honest world – could go to the production company to sustain the show. Unfortunately we have for now an economic model that rewards mediocrity with a big fan base and punishes ingenuity and creativity.

When online purchases can sustain a show like Lone Star or My Generation (or My So-called Life,) the video landscape will be very different. NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and CW be forewarned. That day is coming.

Really too bad. Never seen My Generation, but Lone Star was absolutely a great new series, with many likeable (in their own way) characters.
However, Lone Star’s poor ratings were probably because of the other promising 24/X-Files show ‘The Event’, which was in the same timeslot. (They even copied 24′s font, to make it all look a bit more obvious…)

Production stopped apparently, for Lone Star, so a restart/reboot doesn’t seem likely. FX might just air the 3 remaining episodes, but that’ll be it.

Well, Lone Star was my favorite show of the season. Just like Kings was, and Eyes was, Trust Me was, Day Break was… andsoonandsoon.
Unfortunately people rather watch procedurals than something new, fresh and unpredictable.

I honestly loved the idea of what My Generation was about. It was realistic, everyone goes to high school saying there gonna marry this person and there gonna follow through with this career and once they get out of school they usually end up elsewhere. The only thing that wasn’t realistic about it was how it was broad casted but because it was I liked it even better. I know I related to the show a lot, I went to high school saying I was gonna go to college and be a hairstylist. I said I was gonna marry the boyfriend I had when I graduated and that didn’t happen with me at all. I am happy with my life the way it turned out. I wish the show would come back on air. It was too soon to have canceled it, people just needed to give it a chance.